[When life needs routine, imagination, listening]

When life needs routine, imagination, listening. Barbara is a 44 years old oncologist, married and with two children, that tells through others but also with her own words of her cancer, until death. Giuseppe is a laboratory technician, researcher, mountaineer, promoter of humanitarian initiatives Bosnia and Croatia; his lateral amyotrophic sclerosis is told by his wife, in a booklet written after his death. Their two stories are the occasions for reflecting on the importance and role of closeness, listening, dreaming, narrating in improving the quality of life and care: none of these words are included in the guidelines.